Her Eyes Reflect The Stars

by Lynwood

We Cross The First Mountain Range

Dear Diary,

Sorry it's been so long since my last entry! We've been traveling like mad!

I wanted to write every day, but our travel has been swift and purposeful since we left the city. Each day begins with a quick breakfast, then we travel all day, with a short stop for lunch. By the time we make camp for the night, my hooves are so tired and sore that it's all I can do to pitch my tent, eat supper (stew, always,) and flop into my sleeping bag. Tonight was different because― well, I'll get to that in a moment.

We began with a hurried trot through the Eastern Lands. Four Score and Auburn were both eager to move quickly, though for different reasons. Auburn told me in gruff, stunted sentences that what remained of the Children were attracted to the city in the old days, and even though there were plenty of patrols out nowadays, it still paid to be discrete and to not linger. She has the scars to back up her words, so I believe her wholeheartedly. Score seemed less worried about that and more concerned with the fact that he is the pony who's paying for the journey, so the less time our adventure takes, the better.

Anyway, we traveled through the Eastern Lands quickly. We only passed through one small town on the way― Barnsborough, I think it was called― stopping briefly to top off our supplies before continuing on. Before I knew it, we had reached the base of the mountains.

The mountain range used to have a railway line going through it, way back before our time. The rails are still technically there, I suppose, rusting away underneath countless tons of soil and stone. Back during the Event ponies used rockslides to block the valley, turning the range into a massive barrier, which I'm told was quite the disputed decision when it was made. Apparently, a lot of ponies were still on the other side of the mountain range.

Today it's quite safe, however. We followed a scraggly trail up through what used to be the side of the old valley, which looks quite natural nowadays. It's heavily wooded, all pines and brush, and the hills made travel slow. Still, we reached the other side in the middle of the second day and made camp early, at Auburn and Compass's recommendations. Thus, I actually have had time to get off my hooves and relax for a bit. A win for diary keeping!

We have a good reason for stopping, one that Score didn't even argue. We're camped in the foothills of the Range, and the Ash Fields lie ahead of us. Unlike the Eastern Lands (which are, ironically, currently to our west,) the Ash Fields has far more Children and even some active machines. We haven't encountered any yet, but I can see a great big mass far in the fields. It's motionless and overgrown, but I think it might be one, old and broken.

We'll pass by it tomorrow, on our way to the first site, and the real work, the entire purpose of our expedition, will start then.

I'm being called over to join in the game of Mare's Hoof. Four Score continues to be crummy at cards and needs a teammate who knows what he's doing, so that's all for now.

Signed,
Quick Quill